


Wishing Only Wounds The Heart

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-25
Updated: 2012-04-25
Packaged: 2017-11-04 07:32:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/391338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the rest of her family fled south of the border, Mia was left behind where she would be <i>safe</i>. However, Mia has no interest in being safe and out from the shadow of her older brother, Mia becomes a well-known street racer. So what happens when the man that tore her life apart, and the sister she always trusted both decide to come back into her life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SmallFandomBang on LJ.
> 
> Thanks to my wonderful artist, QueenMidalah

  


It had never been part of Mia’s plans to be left behind by her family when they fled the country to get away from the police. In fact, she had assumed that she would be going with them after everything that happened. She waited at the hospital for Letty to be questioned and treated, and when she was released, Mia was there to pick her up. The plan was to stop at the house so that Letty could pack a bag and then they could get on the road to wherever Dom was hiding. Mia already had a bag packed, so it wouldn’t take the two young women all that long to follow him. She had made all of the extra preparations that she thought they needed.

When Letty suggested that they relax for a little while and have a few beers, Mia figured that it would be a good idea. It would make sure that there were no police on their tale if they waited to leave the area for a few more hours. They had a long road ahead of them and if they could avoid having a tail, it would be all the better for everyone involved.

It didn’t occur to Mia to be suspicious about any of this. She was with Letty and she had no reason not to trust the woman that had been such a staple in her life for as long as she could remember.

She wasn’t suspicious until she woke up the next morning with the worst headache she had ever suffered from in her life. Not even a tequila hangover had ever come this close to making her wish she was dead. She lay in the bed for awhile until she realized that she didn’t hear any other kinds of sounds in the house. At the very least, Letty should be making whatever finishing touches she thought they needed before they left and she should be hearing all of that.

She quickly sat up. “Letty? Hey, Letty!”

Even as she pressed past the headache, she knew that there wasn’t going to be an answer.

She scrambled off of the bed as fast as she could make herself move and hurried down the stairs. When she couldn’t find Letty in the house, she slammed out of the door and hurried into the garage.

It was the black car that told her that her family had left without her. The black car that Dom had been working on with her to turn into her own racer. If they had been planning on her joining them wherever they were, Dom would have arranged for someone to drive the car so all she would need to do was to get Letty and follow them.

She saw the envelope beneath the wiper blade and she just stared at it for a long time, unable to make herself reach for it and therefore make the abandonment final. Finally, though, there was nothing she could do but reach for the envelope.

The first thing she pulled out of the envelope was a short note from Letty apologizing for drugging her beer. She hadn’t wanted to do it, but it seemed the best way to keep her safe and from trying to follow when they left. It was the last line of Letty’s note that made Mia want to scream at her.

_It’s for your own good, girl. You don’t need this rep. – L._

Mia shook her head slowly. She couldn’t believe that Letty had not only drugged her, but that she had allowed the others to leave her behind. It just wasn’t something she had expected from Letty. She would have expected Letty to stand up for her, to make sure that she was treated like someone who was part of the family and had her own mind.

Letty had always come through with that in the past.

Not this time, though.

Mia swallowed, trying to push down the betrayal that she was feeling towards Letty at the moment. She turned, walking away from the car that she loved so much. She walked past her usual car and then back into the house. It wasn’t until she went back up to her bedroom that she allowed her legs to collapse beneath her.

She stared at the envelope for a long time before pulling out the letter from her brother. It seemed long to her, and that surprised her. She wouldn’t have thought Dom had the patience to sit and write so much. But no, all of the handwriting was Dom’s. She would be able to recognize it anywhere.

She curled her legs beneath her on the bed and took a deep breath as she started to read.

_**Mia** ,_

_I can only imagine what you’re thinking right now and all I can do is hope that one day you’ll understand and forgive me for this._

_I know you and right now, you’re wondering how many languages you can scream at me in. Maybe one day you’ll get that chance, but neither of us should bank on that happening. You and I both know that the cops will never stop hunting me and I’ll do anything to avoid going back to jail. Unfortunately, that means that I have to go somewhere that they won’t find me._

_By now, you know that that buster let me go. I don’t know why he let me go, but you need to be careful and stay away from him. He might try to use you again to get to me and I don’t relish the idea of having to break you out of jail because you shot the punk. He’s a cop, Mia, and no matter how much he deserves it, you just can’t shoot a cop._

_I’m not doing this to punish you for the buster or because I don’t love or trust you, so please, don’t think that. You’re going to be beating yourself up over that buster for a long time and I wish I could stop you from doing that. You loved him and he used you. That’s not your fault. He had all of us fooled and I thought he really was the right kind of guy for you. I thought he’d keep you safe, and for that I’m sorry. I should have taken care of you better._

_Which brings me to this letter._

_The house is taken care of. That’s never been something that we’ve had to worry about. The estate from Mom has always made sure of that. The lease on the garage and the café is paid up, as well. If you’re as smart as I know you are, you’ll hire someone to help you run the place now that you own it on paper. The house is also in your name, but Harry is also the trustee in case anyone gives you any hassle. I don’t expect there to be trouble, but you never know. And we both know that we can trust Harry with our lives. It’s not his fault about the buster. Sometimes, you have to work with people that you would rather not and that time it was Harry over the barrel._

_I never wanted this kind of life for you, Mia. You’re my baby sister and I’m supposed to keep you safe and protected from everything. You are more important to me than anything else in this world and that’s why I have to leave you behind in LA. You’ve got school and you have the chance to really make something of yourself. I know how much you want to be a doctor and me leaving is going to make sure that you can do that. The cops might hassle you a few times, but once they realize that you truthfully have no idea where we’re at, then they’ll leave you alone so you can live your life._

_And you will live your life, Mia. If nothing else, you’re a survivor and just as stubborn as I am. It’s a Toretto trait._

_I love you, Mia. I know that you don’t think that right now as you’re reading this, but it’s true and you need to believe that. It’s because I love you so much that I can do this._

_Stay out of trouble and I’ll call you whenever we reach wherever we might be going. I honestly don’t know where that might be, yet. Away from LA is all I know because it’s just too hot there for us._

_Love,  
Dom_

Mia re-read the letter a few times before she finally dropped it on the bed and buried her face in her hands. Her family had left her behind and Dom was telling her all about how he needed to protect her and she needed to be kept safe. She couldn’t help the tears that filled her eyes. Dom had always been there and now he had left her.

For about the thousandth time, she cursed the fact that she had ever met Brian.

Logically, she knew that if it hadn’t been Brian, then it would have been some other cop that came after her brother – it was just that she had had the bad luck to fall in love with this one. It could have easily been some other cop who didn’t give a damn if people lived or died so long as he got his collar. They had been lucky that Brian wasn’t like that and had helped rescue Vince after he was shot and couldn’t get away from the truck he was attempting to hijack.

Quick on the heels of the sadness she felt about being left behind came a white hot anger. It was an anger that came close to how she had felt when she learned the truth about Brian. Only now that anger was directed at her brother.

Once again, Dom was managing her life and giving her no real say in the matter. He had left her behind because he decided it was the safest thing for her and hadn’t bothered to consult her about it at all.

Typical.

It was completely unsurprising that Dom decided that he could still arrange her life as he saw fit just because he was her older brother. One of these days he was going to have to learn that she had her own mind and she could make her own plans about her life without him needing to interfere. Being her big brother didn’t give him the right to decide what she would and wouldn’t do.

_One of these days._

Mia lifted her head from her hands and stared at the letter on the bed for a long moment.

Dom and the others were gone. By this time, they were probably out of the state – if not the country. It wasn’t like he could pull strings about what she did with her life when he wasn’t even here. It wasn’t like he would ever know what she was doing with her time since he had left her behind. It wasn’t like he could do anything but make a disapproving face when he was to find out that she had started making different decisions than what he had planned for her to do.

It wasn’t like he could do anything to actually stop her from doing what she wanted to do. He was the one that had left her behind and she had spent a great deal of time always doing what he and the family they created expected her to do because she was the baby. Hell, even Jesse had treated her like the helpless baby sister.

Why shouldn’t she use this as an opportunity to take charge of her own life? For so long she had been seen only as Dominic Toretto’s Little Sister, and that was why she became interesting to people outside the family. They all wanted to use her to get close to Dom. They saw her as Dom’s sister first and as Mia second. She’s had enough of that.

It was long past time for her to be recognized as her own person. It was time to see what Mia Toretto was made of.

 

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Oh, Harry, come on! You know that I know my way around an engine every bit as much as any of the guys that have worked for you,” Mia argued. “Hell, I’m a much better driver than most of the guys that do runs for any store and you know I’m good for whatever happens. And, once the people in the know hear that a Toretto is on the circuit again and she’s a driver for you, your business will double or triple. You’ll be making every bit as much money as you were when Dom was running for you – if not more.”

“Which will not do me a damned bit of good when your brother kills me for endangering you,” Harry said as he shook his head. “I can’t make money or cash in on the races if I’m dead.”

“How is he going to know when he’s not even here?”

“Oh you’re almost as funny as Vince,” Harry said dryly. “How does Dom know anything when he’s not seen? Your brother always knows what’s happening.”

“Not this time,” Mia pointed out. “He left the country, Harry. He put everything in my name with you as a joint trustee. He doesn’t expect to be back anytime soon,”

“I would rather that he not come back here with the sole purpose of killing me. I can think of less painful ways for me to commit suicide.”

Mia gave him a look and shook her head. “Harry, you and I both know that’s not going to happen. He _left_ me. He got Letty to drug me so I didn’t wake up and follow them.”

“So this is what, revenge?” He frowned. “I’m sorry Mia mine. I’m not going to be the way you get yourself killed to make Dominic regret leaving you behind.”

“Harry, this isn’t about Dom. For once, it’s about me. It’s about me being Mia and not always being known as Dominic Toretto’s little sister and an easy way to get close to him.”

Harry winced. “I’m sorry about Brian, Mia,” he said gently. “When I was forced by the cops to hire him I never expected that you would get caught in the middle and get hurt by him.”

“It wasn’t your fault. You had no choice but to do what they wanted you to do or you could have lost everything. Dom wouldn’t have wanted that to happen to you.” Mia shrugged. “When he realized that he couldn’t get to Dom any other way, then I was the logical choice.”

“Logical doesn’t make it right.” Harry frowned. “If he ever shows his face in here again –“

“You’ll leave him alone because you are not getting into trouble over some buster breaking my heart.” Mia cut him off. “It happened and we move on.” She gave him a small smile. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”

The older man sighed. “Tell me why you want to do this, really, Mia.”

“Because I’ve always wanted to,” she admitted. “I can race a car or a bike as well as everyone else in the family – sometimes better. Both Dom and Letty taught me the ins and outs of the circuit because they both thought I would need to know about it. Between them and Leon I know more about engines and how to drive any kind of vehicle than most people can ever hope to. Vince taught me the moves that the others didn’t teach me and he and Dom and Letty made sure I knew how to fight if it came down to it.” She looked him in the eye. “And I can outdrive any other delivery guy in the entire city.”

“That’s extortion, Mia.”

“How do you figure? I didn’t say anything to that affect.”

“No, but I’ve known you since you were tiny. You’re thinking that if I don’t hire you and sponsor you, then any of my competitors would jump at having a Toretto driving for them.”

“You brought it up, not me.”

“You didn’t bring it up because you’re not as tactless as the rest of your family,” he said dryly. “Dom would have flat out said that if I didn’t let him drive for me he would go to someone else and then your daddy’s ghost would have haunted me the rest of my life if anything happened.”

“I didn’t know you were superstitious.”

“When it comes to you kids, I am. Your dad was my best friend for many years and he’d never forgive me if you got hurt driving or racing.”

“He’d be more forgiving of you hiring me than he would be of someone else hiring me and it got me hurt.” She said honestly.

Harry sighed, shaking his head. “I know when I’m out maneuvered. You have a deal, Mia, but only if you do exactly what I say and when I say it. You’re not to drive any race until I inspect your parts and your competition. And there will be no dropping out of school for you. You’ll finish college like your family wants you to do. You’ll run your garage and diner during the week and work out of here on weekends. To make sure you have plenty of time for your schoolwork and exams, we’ll find someone to assist you at the garage. The minute, no, the _second_ that I think you’re stretching yourself too thin and your schoolwork or your safety might suffer for it, then you’re sidelined until I say otherwise.”

Mia thought for a moment and she nodded. “That sounds fair.” She gave him a bright smile. “You won’t regret this, Harry.”

“Just keep your brother from killing me when he finds out about this deal.” Harry shook his head. “Though, truthfully, he should have really known better. You’re a Toretto and he couldn’t keep you off the streets forever. Racing is in your blood. It always has been.”

 

The next few months were busy ones for Mia, but she relished in the work.

During the day, she went to classes and made sure to keep her grades up and she was careful not to let the performance and level of her schoolwork slip. She wasn’t about to give Harry any reason to regret agreeing to let her run for him. The garage was doing steady business – and she found herself and her assistant working on vehicles that she had once seen race against her brother.

The irony of the situation was not lost on her. It was kind of amusing, really.

She didn’t think that Dom or Letty would find the situation quite as amusing as she was – especially if they knew what she was working towards. Not that she would have stopped if they did. Finally, finally she was taking charge and doing something that she wanted to do for once. With the exception of Harry, there was no one around to tell her that it was too dangerous or that it wasn’t the kind of life that was for her. There was no one to discourage her from doing what she really wanted to do.

It was kind of a heady feeling, if she were to be honest. She liked feeling like she was finally in charge of her own destiny. She loved her family and adopted family dearly, but there had been times where they were a bit overbearing when it came to her and she felt smothered.

She hadn't realized how smothered she felt until she had decided to go to Harry and talk to him about what she wanted to do. In fact, she hadn't realized how much she wanted to do it until it was all she had left. With no one being there to stop her, she blossomed in the world of parts and street racing.

It was only after her first race that people stopped referring to her as Dominic Toretto’s baby sister and started using her own name.

She’d never forget that first race. She and Harry had just finished installing the extra parts that evening and Mia had been thrilled with how good her car sounded. With the new paint job to go with everything else that had changed, Mia was definitely ready to start the new life she had been working hard towards ever since her family had left her behind.

She saw surprise in more than one face when she pulled up into the staging area. Already people were taking bets on cars and drivers and the area was beginning to get crowded. She parked her car and let it idle there for a few moments before she turned off the motor and stepped gracefully out of the car.  
“Holy shit,” one of the guys said when he got a good look at her. “It’s Baby Toretto!”

Mia was already less than impressed with this guy, so when he made his way over to her, she found that it was hard to keep a pleasant expression on her face.

“Baby Toretto,” the guy greeted her. Now that he was closer, she recognized him as someone that Dom had talked about once or twice. His name was Miguel something. “Man, baby, you look good. What are you doing here? I thought your family high-tailed it out of town with so much bacon being interested in them.”

“The name is Mia, not Baby,” Mia said calmly as she leaned against her car. “And not Baby Toretto.”

“What are you doing here, Mia? Where’s Dominic? I thought you guys left for freer pastures.”

She shrugged, watching him out of the corner of her eye. “I live here. I never went anywhere else.”

“So, they left you behind to cover their escape?” The guy went on. “Man, that sucks, Mia. I never thought your brother was a coward.”

“He’s not.”

“He left you behind to deal with the heat while he ran with his tail between his legs. The great Dominic Toretto, Coward.”

Mia straightened up and focused all of her attention on the guy in front of her. “My brother isn’t a coward.” Mia’s voice had turned completely flat. “He only left me behind because he thought it would be safer for me that way.”

“Safer for you left behind without any protection?” He said looking her up and down. “That’s not protecting you; that’s hanging you out to dry.”

“I have all of the protection I need, Miguel.” Her voice was definitely a clear warning that he shouldn’t push that topic any further.

“I don’t know about that, Mia,” he said as he moved closer to her. “Big brothers are gone. Big sister is gone. Boyfriend turned out to be a cop and he got chased out.” He smiled the kind of smile that he thought was a charming one. “I could fix that for you.”

“Oh you could, could you?” The look in Mia’s eyes and the sound of her voice dropping to a purr should have had him on his guard, but he was too focused in looking her body up and down again as he stepped into her personal space. “And just how would you do that, Miguel?”

“You need a strong man to stand up for you and keep you warm at night, Mia. I can show you a much better time than some buster undercover cop did.”

Something flared in Mia’s eyes, but she gave Miguel a pleasant smile. “Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is, Miguel?”

For the first time, Miguel didn’t look as confident as he had since he had approached Mia. “What do you mean?”

“A small wager,” she said with a grin that looked every bit like her older brother’s. “In addition to the money, if you win, you get a chance to show me if the merchandise is worth all of the hype.” She heard a low chorus of snickers and other comments from the group that had gathered around them.

Miguel looked far too amused by this. It really was too bad that she already knew what machinery his car had under the hood. If she had been in the mood for playing fair with this egocentric ass, she never would have offered him the wager.

“And if you win? What happens if you win the race – not that you will. Racing takes more than sharing the name of one of the greatest street racers ever known in L.A.”

_Oh, now Dom was the greatest racer ever known when a few moments ago this guy had been calling him a coward._

“If I win, you owe me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“That’s right, Miguel, a favor. At some point in the future, I get to call on you for a favor. No questions asked.” She had definitely spent a lot of time around Dom and the others when they were making deals and earning allies.

“You’re so nice that it almost breaks my heart to agree to a sure win for me, Mia,” he said with a smile. “You have yourself a deal, and just remember, I like my girls in red.”

“I’m sure that you do,” she said as she shook his hand.

If it hadn’t been for the way he talked about Dom and the way he had assumed she didn’t know a damn thing, Mia might almost have felt bad about how easy this money and this favor was going to be hers.

Almost.

“He’s an idiot,” Sharyn, a friend of Mia’s from school and her neighborhood, murmured when Mia got into the car. “You can see it in his eyes that he thinks this is going to be an easy win for him.”

“That will be his second mistake,” Mia responded quietly as she watched Miguel getting jibes from his friends about stealing Baby Toretto’s money like this. “His first was in talking shit about Dom.”

Sharyn nodded. “Yeah, I thought you were going to hit him for sure.”

“Better to take his money and have him owing me a favor at a later date.” Mia flashed a grin at her friend. “Besides, I had to do something to keep you from getting arrested before the night has even started.”

Sharyn shook her head. “One time. It was one time and you are never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Probably not,” Mia laughed. “It was definitely something that I will always remember. I’m not sure that I have ever seen Harry turn that many colors of red since my brother was working for him.”

Sharyn shrugged. “Not my fault that I inherited Uncle Harry’s temper. The guy tried to cop a feel and I reacted with my fist.”

“Better than your knife, though,” Mia pointed out. “I don’t think that even Harry could have sprung you if you had stabbed the asshole.”

Sharyn nodded and opened her door. “Okay, girl, I’ll wait for you at the other end.”

Mia’s eyes widened. “You’re not riding with me? You always ride shotgun.”

“Not this time, girly. This time is about family honor – whether you think it or not. Miguel insulted your family and called your brother a coward. You should be alone in the car when you make him eat your exhaust. I’ll meet you at the finish line.” Sharyn kissed Mia’s cheek and got out of the car.

Mia watched her friend disappear into the crowd before she started up her car and drove to the staging line. Her race wasn’t the first one that was being run – nor the first one that Miguel was participating in. Being able to watch the first few runs let her take notes on how Miguel drove and what she thought his weak spots might be.

When she caught something that no one else did, Mia had to fight back a grin. From the way his car jerked each time it went into a higher gear, Mia could tell there was a weak spot somewhere in his transmission. The jerking that the car did each time it moved from third to fourth cost Miguel a few hundredths of a second.

That was a weak point that Mia knew she could capitalize on quite easily. Her transmission had been built by her and Dom, and it had been carefully fine tuned by herself and Harry earlier in the day. Her car was in prime condition – something that Miguel could not claim when it came to his car.

After a period of time, it was Mia’s turn and she was calm as she drove up to her place at the staging line. She looked over at Miguel only once, but it was enough to see that he was making a fool out of himself about racing her. She had seen guys who were completely full of themselves, but this was the first time she had been in a race with one of them.  
Okay, this was the first time she had been in a race on purpose with one of them. She had been messing with guys like this all of her life.

The race started and at that moment, Mia lost herself in the world that was her and the car.

From far away, she heard her competitor’s car, but she was too disciplined to keep checking to see where he was. Her brother had told her that when you’re behind the wheel of a good car, you can ignore everything outside of it. She shifted gears and pressed the gas and let the car drive itself. She was the driver, but she knew how to let the car perform like it was built.

It took her a few seconds to realize that the race was over and she had won.

Sharyn was laughing as she opened Mia’s door and pulling her out of the car.

“You won, Mia! You kicked his ass!”

Mia couldn’t stop the grin that crossed her face as she hugged Sharyn back and the surrouding sounds finally crashed back into her consciouness. There was a lot of shouting and celebrating that she had phased out of her senses while she was behind the wheel of the car. It was a lot louder than it had been before the race.

Miguel walked up to her, shaking his head. “You’re almost as good as your big brother, Mia Toretto,” he said as he handed her a roll of bills. “I haven’t seen a turn like that since the one he made the last time we rolled at Race Wars.”

Mia grinned at him. “I learned a lot from my brother, Miguel. I also know several things that he never got the chance to teach me. A girl can learn all kinds of things if she pays attention to what’s happening around her.”

“I can’t wait to see what kind of racer you turn out to be when you grow up, Mia,” Miguel said with a small smirk. “I’ll be keeping my eyes on you.”

“Yeah but not too close or my Uncle Harry will cut them out of your head,” Sharyn supplied, coming to stand at Mia’s side. “He has a real big problem with the wrong type of guys messing around with his family.”

“I am the perfect example of a gentleman,” Miguel protested. “I treat every girl I’m with like a precious gift.”

“Yeah, a gift that you can get your fingers cut off for trying to unwrap too early,” Sharyn fired back.

Mia laughed. “Come on, Sharyn, let’s go tell Harry about how the car performed.” She looked at Miguel and her eyes were serious. “You’ll be hearing from me, Miguel.”

“I can only hope.”

“Oh you wish,” Sharyn muttered as she and Mia moved through the crowd.

 

Mia was just getting home from Harry’s on a Friday night when she saw a light on in her garage. She knew that she hadn’t left the light on this morning before class – and Sharyn wasn’t due to come over and help her work on things until the next morning. She left her books and her bag in the car, but she grabbed the revolver that Harry had insisted she carry after there had been a run of hold-ups on delivery drivers in the area. Anyone that tried to rob her was going to be in for a rude awakening.

She slowly approached one of the windows and then frowned. She recognized that silhouette and it took everything she had to walk into the garage calmly.

“Do you have a permit for that, Mia?”

“Is it any of your business?”

“Actually, it really is.”

She glared. “Then yes, _Officer_ O’Connor, I have both a carry permit and a carry and conceal permit,” she bit out. “A girl can’t be too careful nowadays.”

“I didn’t realize that going to school and running a diner had become such a dangerous line of work to be in.”

“Well, you know, things change. This used to be a real safe neighborhood once upon a time. Then some buster came in and wrecked the family that kept everything mostly safe here and so the ones he left behind to clean up his fucking mess have had to adapt to keeping things clean on their own.”

Brian sighed and shook his head as he leaned against her workbench. “Do you know where they are, Mia?”

“No.”

The look he gave her was full of disbelief. “Mia.”

“I don’t know where they are, O’Connor. Thanks to you, they left in the middle of the night without me.”

“You’re joking.”

She laughed humorlessly. “No, I’m not. I waited around for Letty to be well enough to leave the hospital. Went to sleep one night and woke up to find my entire family _gone_.” She turned her back to him and went to put one of the cars between them so she didn’t do something stupid like punch him. “Thank you for that, by the way.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“Bullshit. The minute you started dating me to get close to Dom you _knew_ that I was going to end up getting hurt and you didn’t give a damn. Your collar was too damn important than the girl you were screwing.”

Brian had the grace to flinch. “I didn’t use you just to get closer to Dom, Mia. I really did care about you.”

“If that is your way of showing someone that you care about them, then I’m glad that it only cost me my family.” She slammed the door shut on the car. “I mean, it could have cost me so much worse like my life or my freedom.” The look she turned on him was full of anger. “It came close enough to costing my soul, as it was.”

“Ok, yes, at first you were the easiest way to find an in with Dom and his plans,” he admitted. What point was there in lying nay further to her when he had already lied so much?

“At least you’re finally coming clean to what I learned awhile ago.”

“That’s how it was _at first_ , Mia,” Brian said quietly. “All too soon, though, you became more important to me than a tool. I started looking for a way that I could do my job without having to put you in the middle.”

Mia scoffed and shook her head. “Apparently your desire for glory overwhelmed you.”

“That’s not fair, Mia.” Even as he said it, Brian knew those were the wrong words to say.

“ _Fair_? You ruin my life and take everything I’ve ever known away from me and you have the gall to talk to me about being fair?”

“Mia.”

“No. Fuck you and your fucking badge, O’Connor. You destroyed my family and caused them to have to find someplace else to go. You took everything from me and you’re not taking anything else from me.” She drew in a breath and curled her hand tightly over the wrench she had picked up in an effort not to throw it at him. “I cared about you and I trusted you! Don’t you understand how big that was? I trusted someone that wasn’t in the neighborhood and wasn’t on the circuit. I let down my guard and I let you into our family. Dom let you get close because he trusted you because I trusted you. You made him believe that you cared about me and that made him take a chance with you. He trusted you to have his back and to be good to me and it turns out that you were a cop that was using me to get to him!”

Brian looked from her face to the wrench in her hand and then back to her face. “You can throw it at me if it will make you feel better.”

She snorted and shook her head. “So you can arrest me for assaulting an officer in hopes of luring my brother back to town to help me? I don’t think so. I’m not that naïve any longer.”

He gave her a shocked look. “Do you really think that I would do that to you, Mia?” He could hear the hurt in his own voice.

“Why shouldn’t I? After all, last time you slept with me and pretended to care about me to try to arrest him. Arresting me on a trumped up charge would be a lot simpler for you than that.”

“I guess I deserve that opinion you have of me.”

“You guess?” She shook her head. “God, you really are full of yourself, aren’t you.” It wasn’t really a question and she didn’t give him a chance to answer her. “You earned my opinion of you, O’Connor. No one but you forced me to think any of this about you. Your own actions were more effective than anyone’s words ever could have been.”

“Mia, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get so –"

“Just get out of here before I do something that Letty would want to kick my ass for. There’s nothing left for you here. Dom is gone, out of your reach, and I might as well be, too.” She took a deep breath. “You’re not welcome here or at the café and if I were you, I wouldn’t show your face at Harry’s at any point in the future, either.” She turned her back on him and started for the door to the garage. “Show up on my property again and I’ll file harassment charges against you.”


	2. Chapter 2

The weekend after Brian's surprise visit, Mia was in three different races. Seeing Brian again after everything that had happened wreaked havoc with her emotions and her head wasn't completely in her game.

She won one race, lost one and almost wrecked in the third.

The wreck wouldn't have been her fault as the person she was racing lost control of their car, but her reflexes should have been enough to avoid it by a larger margin than she had. Of course, having worked with her for so long and knowing her as he did. Harry had read her the riot act the next time she came to his shop.

"What the hell happened out there, Mia? I've never seen you act like such a rank amateur before! You could have gotten hurt in that last race -- not to mention you could have destroyed your car."

"But I didn't do either," she said tiredly, bending over the engine of the car they were working on. "It won't happen again."

"What rattled you? Did one of the other drivers hit too close to home on something when you were making jibes at each other before the race?" The look Mia gave him spoke volumes. "So, what happened then? Either I get an honest answer or you're sidelined until you can prove to me that you won't let your reflexes slow down like that."

Mia sighed and then turned around so that she could lean against the side of the car and look at Harry as she talked to him. She shook her head, running her hand through her hair.

"I didn't know he could still get to me like that, Harry."

"Who got to you, Mia?" His voice was full of concern. "I need to know these things before I send you out on the circuit."

"It wasn't another racer, Harry," she said quietly. "And it wasn't a spectator or any of the customers here or at the garage."

"Then who was it? Who do I need to take a pipe or a gun to?"

She swallowed, looking down at the ground for a long moment without saying anything. Then she licked her bottom lip and sighed.

"O'Connor came to my place Thursday night."

Harry breathed in and then let it out through his teeth. "The buster came to your place? Did you hit him in the mouth?"

"And give him an excuse to lock me up so he could lure Dom back to town to spring me? I don't think so."

He sighed. "Fair enough. I wouldn't put the cops past something like that and we both know how Dom would react to the news of you getting arrested."

"Because the cops would make sure it was on every news show that Mia Toretto had been arrested for assaulting a cop," she said. "There would be no way that Dom wouldn't see that and he would lose his shit. He would be playing right into their hands when he stormed back into town to get me out and away."

Harry leaned against his workbench and nodded. "He'd kill someone for sure over that." He knew Dom's temper and he knew what would happen if someone arrested his baby sister.

"But I wanted to hit him, Harry. God knows I wanted to," she admitted. "I grabbed a wrench when I found him in my garage and I thought about swinging it at his face, consequences to me be damned."

"What stopped you?"

"The realization that it would make it easier for him to use me to get something from Dom again."

"Yeah, I can see how that would do it. What did he say he wanted?" There was always a difference in what someone like O'Connor said he wanted and what he was really after.

"He was looking for Dom, naturally," Mia responded.

"And he actually thought that you would tell him?" Harry's voice was incredulous. "I knew he was a dumb bastard after what he did, but I guess I didn't realize just how dumb of a buster he is."

"He flat out asked me where they all were. He didn't believe that they all left and I remained behind. I think he assumed that it was set up so that I would look like I was all alone, but that actually Dom or Vince would be near by to keep an eye on me." She sighed. "I can't believe that he thought my brother would be that foolish. He knows that cops would be keeping their eyes on me and the moment Dom showed his face, they would arrest him and haul his ass to jail."

"Dom's a lot of things, but that kind of a fool he is not. He'd be expecting there to be a trap at some point."

"And I think that in the hopes of getting Dom into a cell, he let that bit of knowledge escape his brain." She looked across at Harry. "And then he had the nerve to tell me that he had never planned on me getting hurt in all of what happened."

"He said what?" Harry's hand tensed on his workbench.

"He kept telling me that he didn't mean for me to get hurt and he hadn't expected a lot of the things that had happened. But what the hell did he think was going to happen? He was fucking me and pretending to care about me just so that he could get closer to my brother. He wanted Dom's trust and his secrets and I was the best way for him to get close to him and gain his trust." She shook her head. "All he cared about was getting into Dom's good graces so that he could shut down the side business he was involved in and then take him to prison. He knew that I would end up getting hurt when it was all said and done and he just didn't give a damn. He was too focused on getting his collar."

Harry shook his head and sighed. "I can't believe that he showed up at your place, Mia mine."

"He didn't even believe me when I said that they had left me behind when they pulled the disappearing act. He thought I was lying to protect them. I think I finally got him to believe me because he went right back to continuing to apologize to me and give me all of this nonsense about how he hadn't wanted me to get hurt."

"I can't believe that he actually thought any of that would really work on you."

"Or that I would tell him where they were just because he was there and asking me. Like I would tell O'Connor where they were even if I knew their location. As far as I'm concerned, he's the last person I would give a glass of water to if he was dying of thirst."

Harry nodded, smiling slightly. "He should have realized that you are just as much of a Toretto as your brother. It's more than a name. It's the blood that flows through the two you. One will not betray the other and any outsider that thinks to hurt one of them ends up calling up the fires of hell to avenge the actions."

"He should have gotten a clue from the way that Dom was willing to deal with Tran and his cousin over Jesse." She sighed. "O'Connor kept apologizing and telling me how much he had cared for me. I was a tool only at first and then he found that he was caring deeper and deeper for me."

"Tell me that you didn't believe that bullshit?"

"Of course I didn't, and I told him that I called bullshit on what he was saying. Then I told him he wasn't welcomed at my garage or my cafe and that if I was him, I wouldn't show up at your store any time in the near future, either."

"Be safer for him. I have a lead pipe that would really like to become best friends with his head."

"Shouldn't be a problem since I told him that if he showed up on my property again, I would file charges of harassment with his department."

"Good call, Mia, good call. If you couldn't let loose with violence on him, promise him retribution going through the same channels he would have gone through to get your brother thrown in jail."

"I figured that would be better than beating his face in with a wrench," she sighed.

"Did you ask him why he let Dom go that day?"

She shook her head. "No, he was so focused on finding out where my brother was for me to ask. I didn't want to give the idea that I was interested in him or cared about the reasons he had for doing all of the things that he had done. I just wanted to get some distance between he and I and his questions about Dom and the family's whereabouts."

Harry nodded. "If he comes back around, you'll let me know?"

"Of course."

 

After the visit from Brian and the conversation with Harry, Mia threw herself into her work. She needed the work to keep herself busy and off of the fact that Brian was somewhere in the area. She knew him well enough to know he wouldn't stay away from her just because she told him to do so.

During the day she worked on her classwork and the work at the diner or the garage. She used it to keep a watch on who might be coming and going in and out of the racing scene. If she could find out things early, it would help Harry out with his store. Of course, it would also give them advanced warning with any new modifications that people were making to their cars.

She and Sharyn had a lot of fun as they tinkered with engines and worked on tune-ups on vehicles that desperately needed it in their neighborhood. Mia had realized early on that sometimes it helped to be able to do things for people in the neighborhood -- and it didn't hurt that it guaranteed them to be owed favors for a later time.

On week nights when she wasn't hanging out with Sharyn or working with Harry, Mia was in the garage attached to the house. She was working on a new project and the safest place for her to do it was in her own place.

She was bent over the engine bay of her car, fastening a bolt when her hands froze. She cocked her head slightly, listening. Something had caused her to go on alert and she was trying to figure out what had disrupted her concentration.

There it was again, the sound of footsteps where there shouldn't be any. There was someone sneaking around the property outside. She made sure that her body was relaxed as she wrapped her hand more securely around the breaker bar that she had beneath the hood. The gait was different than Brian's and any one else would have called first.

Without a sound, she straightened from the car and turned around. Crouching next to the car, she turned the tool in her hand so that she could throw it as soon as the intruder decided to come into the garage.

The door opened and Mia watched, waiting.

"If you bust my head open with that breaker bar I am going to be really pissed off."

Mia let go of the tool in shock and heard it clatter to the ground, kicking up dirt as it did.

"Letty?!"

"Well, it's certainly not the Easter Bunny," Letty responded as she pulled the door shut behind her. "Glad to know that you're always prepared for anything, though." She looked at the dropped tool and then back at Mia. "Where the hell is your gun?"

"On the workbench," Mia responded, leaning down to pick up the breaker bar and place it back near the engine she had been working on. "Too easy for it to get knocked off onto the ground if I have it by the engine while I'm working."

"Dom got you that gun so that you would have the protection." Letty was frowning at her.

"And when I need it, I know exactly where it is."

"And what about when someone gets the drop on you? You can't exactly get to it over there if they already have you down."

Mia gave an exasperated snort. "They can't get the drop on me here. I heard you coming even before you were near the door. I was ready and waiting for someone to be foolish enough to try something." She shook her head. "You weren't as silent as you used to be, Letty. You must be losing your edge."

Letty scoffed. "I haven't started losing anything and you damn well know it."

Mia shrugged at her and turned back to the engine she was working on. "Doesn't matter what I know or don't know. That fact was made abundantly clear months ago."

Mia turned before she could see Letty's wince at the words.

"I told Dom that you'd still be pissed off."

Mia stiffened and forced herself not to look back at Letty. Instead, she went about loosening the bolts she had been working on getting out when she'd heard someone approaching.

"Pissed off? No, that's not an accurate description of what I'm feeling right now, Letty. Pissed off was when I discovered my fucking family had run off on me. Pissed off was when I realized that I had been left behind and was alone." She shook her head. "I passed the point of being pissed off a long time ago."

"You sound bitter, Mia. That's not like you."

"Yeah well, things change." Mia's voice was carefully flat.

"Mia, it was for your own good. We didn't have any other options at the time."

"You _drugged_ me, Letty. Do you have any idea what I felt like when I put two and two together?" Mia was furiously working the wrench as she unscrewed the bolts. "You not only made my decisions for me, but you took away my ability choose what I wanted or needed. You drugged me and you and Dom -- my god damned brother -- ran off on me in the middle of the night. You left me a note and that was all."

"We did what we needed to do in order to keep you safe and keep you off of the cops' radar. You have a really good future ahead of you and we didn't want anything to run the risk of screwing things up for you."

"Yeah because that was more important to me than being with the people I loved." Mia shook her head. "I wouldn't have cared about anything else as long as I still had my family. Instead, I woke up one morning to find out that you had all left me behind and I was now on my own."

"We did what we thought was the best thing to do. We wanted to protect you and keep you safe." Letty snapped. "You can't be a bitch and fault us for that."

Mia slammed down her wrench beneath the hood and while the harsh sound was still reverberating through the garage, she spun and faced Letty. Her eyes were dark and it was very obvious that she was furious.

"You just don't get it, do you?" She demanded. "You guys have no right to make my decisions for me! I'm an adult, Letty! I can make up my own mind and choose my own path for my life. You took my control away and you guys once again didn't think to ask me what I wanted or how I felt! You just made the decision how everything was going to go and didn't once consult me. Just because you and Dominic think that something is for the best doesn't make it right!"

Letty stepped back, surprised over the fact that Mia was yelling at her. Once upon a time, the younger girl never would have raised her voice like this at any of them. However, it wasn't just Mia's voice that surprised her, it was the fact that she could see that the other woman's body was literally shaking with emotion. Mia had changed in more ways than one over the last several months, and Letty could see that very clearly. There was a hardness in her eyes that had never been there before, and for the first time, she was worried that Mia wouldn't forgive them for something that they had done.

"I get that you're really angry with us, Mia," Letty finally said quietly. "But Dominic really did think he was doing the right thing in trying to protect you."

"I'm not just angry, Letty. I'm hurt. After everything else that had happened, I trusted in that I would have my family around me to help me deal with things and to help me get up again. I trusted that no matter what happened, my family would always be there. You guys took that away from me." Mia looked at her. "At the end of the day, when it was really important that we all stick together, you guys abandoned me like I was some useless car that couldn't make the top speeds anymore."

Letty stepped back, staring at her. "Mia mine, that's not --"

"Save it, Letty," Mia cut her off. "You did what you did and there is no going back on that. You have to deal with the consequences just like I've had to do. You didn't want me with you and now I don't need you with me." Mia looked at her and then turned back to the engine she was working on. "I believe you know the way out."

Letty watched her for a moment and then sighed and walked out of the garage. Anger, they could deal with. Hell, hurt, they could even deal with. The fact that Mia no longer trusted any of them, well, that was an even bigger issue that none of them had thought about when they agreed to leave.

Once out in her car, she watched the garage for a few minutes, but Mia didn't follow her out like she would have before all of the shit with the cops and O'Connor went down. Shaking her head, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. When the voice answered at the other end, Letty sighed.

"We've got a problem," she said softly. "And I don't know if it's a problem that we can even fix."

 

After the visit from Letty, Mia became more focused on what she was doing. If Brian had impacted her concentration, Letty had only sharpened it. The anger she was feeling after the visit was channeled into her races and the work she was doing for Harry. If Harry had any thoughts about the sudden change in how she approached everything, he never voiced them to her.

Harry knew all about having something riding you and driving you, after all. He also knew how Mia felt when O'Connor dropped back into her life and started interrogating her with a lot of questions about where Dominic Toretto had disappeared to. It stirred up a lot of memories about shit that Mia was trying to heal up from. It was healing that started slow, and Harry could see that it was still going to be a slow process since something else also set her off and caused the healing he had been helping her to do come undone.

Therefore, he wasn't all that happy to have someone drop in on him one night. It was someone that he really had never wanted to see again.

"You must have some kind of death wish, kid," Harry said, his tone not at all friendly. "There's nothing for you here, so I suggest that you find your way out the same way that you found your way in."

"I need to talk to you, Harry," Brian said quietly.

"No, you don't. Because of you, I watched the kids that I love like my own get hurt and torn apart. Because of you, I watched the heart of one of those kids be broken and saw her trying to deal with that and the loss of her family." He pointed to the door. "I have nothing to say to you and if you don't leave, I might forget you're a cop."

"I'm worried about Mia."

"You should have thought about that before you used her to get to her brother." Harry muttered before he turned his back on Brian.

"It was my job," Brian responded. "I didn't like it, but I didn't have any choice. Mia was the only way that I could get to know Dom better." He sighed. "She was the only way that I was able to save his life, later."

“And I know that she was grateful that you were able to stop them from getting killed,” Harry snapped. “However, that didn’t help her heart any when she found out that you had used her to get to her family and then her family left her. Because of you, she feels like they abandoned her because of her getting involved with you.”

Brian stared at him in confusion. “Dom wouldn’t have done that to Mia. He might have done that to anyone else in the world, but never to Mia. That was one of the things he always made clear – Mia was the most important person in his life and he would do whatever he had to do in order to keep her safe and untouched by the life he was living.”

“Funny how words aren’t as crystal clear as actions are. They all left her behind when they went on the run from cops like you. Now, with the exception of hijacking big rigs for kicks, Mia is doing exactly what the rest of them did. Only, she’s trying to use common sense and when she’s flying it’s the only time that she seems happy and at peace.”

“What are you talking about?”

Harry cursed and threw down the tool he was working with so that he could turn back around to face Brian.

“Mia’s a racer, Brian. She was born to the road and she’s planning on getting involved with more legal circuit racing.” Harry shrugged. “I’ve agreed to be her sponsor when she gets there.”

“Dominic never wanted Mia to race.”

“Mia makes up her own mind. She wanted to race and it’s helped her deal with all of the hurt and betrayal that she’s had to deal with since you came into her life.” Harry shook his head. “I was against it at first, because like you, I knew what Dom wanted and didn’t want for her. But, not only is she a natural at it, it was her decision and what she wanted to do. Once I realized that, I wasn’t going to stop her or stand in her way. Better she run with me to teach her and keep things safe than some idiot who was only in it for kicks.” He ran a hand through his gray hair. “It wasn’t about Dom and what he wanted, but about Mia and what she wanted.”

“What can I do to help her, Harry? What can I do to make amends to her for everything that happened?”

“Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve said, kid? You can’t make amends for this. You can’t fix everything that you caused to get broken. Even if you could make some kind of amends to her for your part in what happened, you can’t fix the rest of what’s broken. You may have started the cracks, but you’re not the one who caused the complete break between Dom and Mia. The only one that can fix that is going to be Dom – and the rest of them for their part in making her feel like she wasn’t worth taking with them.”

“There has to be something that I can do for her, though,” Brian argued.

“There is,” Harry retorted coldly. “Leave her alone. Walk away – again – and pretend you never met her. Let her heal and move on. Let her stay in control of her own life and her own destiny. In her eyes, you cost her heart and her entire family. You’ve done more than enough and I don’t think she could handle any more of your kind of help.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“I’m pretty sure that he does,” a new voice said from behind Brian.

Brian turned and looked at the young woman standing there. “And you are?”

Sharyn shook her head and then looked at Harry. “This is the infamous Brian O’Connor? He looks pretty damn scrawny for as much trouble as he’s caused around here.”

“Yeah, well, Sharyn, we all know that looks can be deceiving,” Harry replied calmly. “Aren’t you supposed to be working at Mia’s today?”

“I am.” Sharyn nodded, then looked back at Brian. “We had a timing chain disintegrate on one of the customer’s cars and I came to purchase some parts so that we could fix it.” She shook her head. “The dude hadn’t had a tune up since before Jesus was a toddler.”

Harry’s lips quirked in a smile and then he laughed. “You know where the stuff is. Just write down the part numbers of what you take so I can put it on Mia’s account.”

“Sure thing, Uncle Harry.” She started to head into the store and then stopped, turning back to look at Brian. “Stay away from Mia or I’ll put a knife in you, cop or not.”

 

The wreck should never have happened. 

Later, everyone who was close enough to see it would all agree in their statements that there was nothing Mia would have been able to do in order to avoid it.

However, as Harry was listening to Mia on the radio, they hadn’t gotten to that part yet. Everything sounded like it was going smoothly and nothing in Mia’s voice suggested that there was anything out of the ordinary going on inside the car.

He muted his headset and unclipped the second radio from his belt.

“Sharyn? How are things looking from where you’re sitting?”

“Everything looks awesome, Uncle Harry. Mia is only one car length behind the jackass showboat, but she’s gaining on him.”

“Do you see any sign of unwanted attention?”

“No, no sign of the cop from where I’m at. I don’t think his stupid ass would be dumb enough to show his face.”

“Don’t count on that. He seems very determined to straighten things out with Mia.”

“Yeah, maybe when hell freezes over. Mia has – what the fuck?! MIA!”

Harry jumped to attention when Sharyn let out the expletive. “Sharyn? _Sharyn!_ ”

“The fucker rammed her!”

“Who? Who rammed her?”

There was silence on the other end of the radio and that was when Harry heard Mia’s frightened voice come over his headset. He had never heard her sound so frightened and he was sure that he felt his heart freeze in his chest.

“Harry, I’m losing it!”

“Mia? Mia, remember, turn into the spin.”

Mia didn’t respond and Harry was already running towards the makeshift track when he heard the sound of a car colliding with something that had very little give.

 

Brian was the first person to the crash site. He had been driving one of the chase cars and had watched in horror as the driver Mia was passing suddenly swerved and rammed the front of his car into the side panel of Mia’s car. Before he could blink, Mia’s car flipped several times and then went skidding along the street on its roof. He slammed both feet on the brakes of his own car, not paying attention to the squealing sound the tires made – or the sound that his transmission made in response to his foot coming so quickly off the clutch. The car had barely skidded to a stop before he was out of it and running to where Mia’s car had come to a rest after colliding with the side of a building.

“MIA!” He yelled, trying to pull her door open. 

He had the brief moment to thank God Harry had insisted that a five point harness was installed in her car. She was hanging from her seat, but at least she was still fastened in and hadn’t taken a ride around the inside of her car.

“Pull, Buster! Damn it, pull!”

In any other circumstance, suddenly hearing the voice of Dominic Toretto would have caused Brian to go on the defensive, but this was not the time. He was just glad that there was someone there to help him get Mia to safety. He saw in a swift glance that Dom and Vince were there and the three of them worked to pry open the driver’s side of Mia’s car. While they did that, Letty had managed to squeeze into the busted out window of the passenger’s side and she was making sure that she kept Mia secure in the harness. She reached up under the straps of the helmet Mia was wearing to feel for her pulse.

“She’s got a pulse!” Letty yelled. “It’s slower than I’d like, but it’s there.”

Brian felt the burn of his muscles in his back and arms as they pulled and then felt the door give. He didn’t even protest when Dom shoved past him and Vince and pushed the door off of the car with a loud screech of metal.

“Thank god Harry made her wear a helmet and installed the harness,” Vince said as he looked into the car. “If we can get the car back onto its tires, we should be able to keep her stable until we can get her to the hospital.”

“Are you nuts?” A new voice demanded and Brian recognized it as the girl from Harry’s shop. “You guys could hurt her even further if you move her wrong.”

“Look, cupcake,” Letty snapped. “The way she’s hanging in the harness is constricting her breathing and cutting into her neck. If we don’t get this damn thing righted, by the time those idiot paramedics get here – if they’ve even been called – she could be dying or dead. So shut up and either help us or go the fuck away.”

“Letty, it’s going to be a rough ride.” Dom cautioned her as he directed Brian and Vince to get in position to help him flip the car.

“I’ve had worse, Papi,” she assured him. “I’ll brace and you do what you do so we can get baby girl the help she needs.”

 

The next few minutes were a blur for Brian.

He remembered them getting the car right side up – and the fact that Letty was curled around Mia so that she wasn’t jostled too much. He remembered the three of them being pushed back as the paramedics got there. Once the paramedics got Mia out of the car and onto a stretcher, he started to become aware of other things.

He saw Dom in a quiet conversation with Harry and watched as he squeezed the other man’s shoulder and nodded. When Dom came back to where he was standing with Vince and Letty, he just stared at him for a moment.

“This is not the place or the time,” Dom finally said. “But you and I have some unfinished business we need to take care of.”

“Mia…”

“Harry and Sharyn are riding in the ambulance with her. We’ll follow. It would have been too much for Mia to wake up in the ambulance and see one of us there.” There was pain in his eyes as he said that, but his voice was carefully controlled.

“Why did Harry let her run in this race?” Vince demanded. “And why was she wearing a helmet and harness? Those things aren’t the norm for street racing.”

Dom ran a hand over his head. “Mia’s going legit.”

There was a shocked silence and then Brian heard his own voice.

“What?”

“Mia has a chance to do legit racing and Harry’s shop is sponsoring her. She’s been wearing the helmet and the five-point harness in order to get herself accustomed to the feel of them.” He sighed. “And thank god she was because that crash probably would have killed her on impact otherwise.”

“What about the other driver,” Vince demanded. “The one that wrecked her. What are we going to do about him?”

“We’ll find him and take of him later,” Dom said firmly. “Right now, we need to get to the hospital and be with Mia.”

 

It all seemed a little more surreal than he was used to.

Brian found himself driving Dominic to the hospital with him. He understood Dom’s reasoning – after all, he had the siren and the magnetic light he could put on his dash that would allow him to break every traffic law to keep up with the ambulance. It was just very strange for him to be in the same car with the other man.

When they got to the hospital, Brian tried to break off, but Dom stayed on his tail.

“Mia comes first,” Dom said. “If I don’t stay on you, Vince might get ideas that would piss off my sister.”

“Mia could care less what happens to me,” Brian said, shaking his head. “And I know I deserve it.”

“If you truly believe that, then you don’t know a damn thing about Mia. She still cares about you or she wouldn’t want to take a wrench to your skull. You hurt her and betrayed her.” Dom sighed, shaking his head. “Hell, so did I, only in a different way. She’s pissed off and wants to beat the hell out of each and every one of us, but she still cares.”

“I don’t care what she wants to do me,” Brian finally said. “All I care about is that she is alive to do it.”

“She will be. She’s a Toretto. That kind of toughness starts in the womb.”

Brian was quiet for a few moments as they made their way to the waiting area of the Emergency room. They had made good time – getting there right as the ambulance carrying Mia showed up. After they watched her be transported from the ambulance and then through the doors to the Emergency room, Brian looked at Dom.

“Why did you leave her behind, Dom? I thought she was the most important person in your world.”

“She is and that’s why I did it.” Dom leaned his head back against the wall he was standing at. “I didn’t want to take the chance that she would end up in jail or worse. I figured that by leaving her behind, I was protecting her and keeping her life stress free.”

“Losing her entire family didn’t exactly make her life stress free.” Brian’s voice was quiet. “I think it broke a part of her.” He swallowed. “It broke a part of her that I hadn’t already broken. Even with everything that I did, she was counting on being with you in order for her life to start making some sense again. When the rest of you left her behind…”

“I would ask you how you know so much about my sister, but you never have had the good sense to stay away from where you’re not wanted.”

“I wanted to talk to her, to explain why I did what I did. I wasn’t expecting forgiveness or anything, I just wanted her to know why I had done it and that my feelings for her were real.” He shook his head. “I certainly didn’t expect to find out that you had left her behind to punish her for trusting an outsider.”

“That wasn’t why we left her behind.”

“Yeah, maybe not but that’s what she believed.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because she told me that before she kicked me out of her garage.”

Dom sighed. “That wasn’t it at all and I thought I explained it so well in my letter to her.”

“Apparently not well enough,” Brian said dryly.

Before Dominic could respond, they saw Harry come through the double doors that Mia had disappeared through. The two of them moved away from the wall to intercept him.

“Harry?” Dominic’s voice was surprisingly gentle.

Harry looked up and his worn expression shifted to something that could have been an attempt at a smile. He ran a hand through his hair.

“She’s going to be okay,” he said quietly. “She’s got a concussion and is pretty bruised up from where her body got jerked around by the harness. She’s going to be sore for a little while, but there’s no broken bones and nothing internal was hurt.” He swallowed. “The helmet and the harness kept her neck from getting jerked around which could have caused problems for her with the way the car flipped and then collided with the building.” He let out a breath. “She regained consciousness for a little bit, and knew who she was and what year it is. She’s going to have to stay here a few days so the docs can make sure that there aren’t any injuries that they missed on their first go around, but they seem to think she’ll be fine.”

“So she’ll be back to training in a few weeks, then?” Dominic’s voice was calm.

Harry met Dom’s eyes and nodded firmly. “If that’s what she still wants to do after this, then I’m going to stick with her and make sure she has the best chance at success with it.”

“There’s no one besides myself that I’d trust her to,” Dominic said quietly. “Will they let me back to see her?”

“Yeah, it’s why I came out. Only two people are allowed with her and I’m not sure you’re going to get Sharyn to leave her side.”

“She’s going to have to when Letty gets here.”

Harry shrugged. “That’s between all of you. I did my part by coming to get you.”

Brian watched Dominic go to check on his sister and then went to drop down into one of the chairs that he’d been avoiding while they were waiting for news.

_Mia was going to be all right._

He leaned forward to rest his head in his hands. Things were nowhere near perfect and he didn’t know if he’d ever get a chance to make things up to her. However, the more important thing was that she was going to be all right and there was no long term damage.

As long as he knew that, everything else could wait for another day.

And there _would_ be another day for the two of them. Somehow, he’d make sure of it.


End file.
